Machine for sewing looped fabrics



(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. SUPER. MACHINE FOR SEWING LOOPED FABRICS. No. 444,859.

Patented Jan. 20. 1891.

m: NORRIS PETERS 00., mom-4mm, vusmua'reu, n. c.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. SUPER.

- MACHINE PORASEWING LOOPED FABRICS. No. 444,859. Patented Jan. 20,1891.

| Pawns cm, vuoTo-Llmm, wgcum ron, n. c.

Nrr D STATES I e t PATE T rrica JOSEPH SOPER, OF YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 444,859, dated January 20, 1891.

Application filed September 24, 1889. Serial No. 324,943. (No model.)

To (all whom it away concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH SOPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ypsilanti, in

the county of \Vashtenaw and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Sewing Looped Fabrics; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to a machine for more perfectly seaming knit goods.

In the machines heretofore in vogue it has been difficult to use a variety of threads on one machine. One reason of this has been that the needle and looper, in making what is known in the art as the through and over stitch have both been lifted up to make the overstitch. If the looper is to be raised with the needle to another plane, it makes a slack in the thread which cannot be taken up by any spring unless the spring be so strong that it makes the through-stitch too tight. This not only makes the stitch irregular, but tends to break the thread, particularly if of Wool or otherwise uneven. This is avoided in my construction by having the looper perform all of its work in the same plane and by raising the needle only, dropping it to place over the work just in time to have the looper take the thread. In this way I secure a uniform tension on both the through and the over stitches, and am able to use indifferently cotton, wool, linen, lisle, or silk threads.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is an end view on the line at a: of Fig. 3, of the mechanism for driving the needle-arm. Fig. 2 is another end view from the opposite end of the machine. Fig. 3 is a front elevation. Fig. l is a back view of cam C. Fig. 5 represents the path of the needle in performing the through-stitch, and Fig. 6 its path in forming the loop and making the overstitch.

Upon the shaft A is keyed a pinion A, meshing with a gear-wheel B, which has twice as many teeth as the pinion, so that the wheel, which is fixed to the frame E and rotates upon a parallel shaft T, Wlll make one revolution to each two of the shaft and pinion. 'Iihis feature is common to machines of this 0 ass.

Fixed to the gear B, Figs. 1 and 3, is a cam C with a peripheral grade, which raises a lifting-arm G through the medium of the stud I. This lifting-arm G is pivoted at H to the frame E, and its free end has a loose and sliding connection with the needle-arm by means of a link M and stud N. The needle-arm is reciprocated by being pivotally connected to a shoe S, sliding within a groove P in the face of an eccentric O, secured to rotate with the power-shaft A. The cam O is so timed as to drop or lower the lifting-arm and hence the needle at the proper time to have the looper take the thread to form the overstit-ch, and the through-stitch is made by the revolution which does not lift the needle-arm. The cam Q, Fig. 3, is fixed to the shaft A, and is of a form to give the proper reciprocation to the looper-arm, which is not shown, as the latter is of the usual form and operates in way common to machines of this class, and the eccentric R is to drive a rod moving the work-table, which may be ofi any convenient form for setting up the knit goods to be sewed. From this construction it will be seen that a single rotation of the power-shaft A will give one complete revolution to the eccentric O and cause the needle to advance and retreat, or, in other words, to make one complete reciprocation from Ct to Z) and back to a, as represented by arrows 1 and 2 in Figs. 5 and 6. In this operation, in which the through-stitch is made, the needle-arm oscillates the link M, and also slides it upward on the stud Nwithout raising the arm G. A second or continued rotation of the power-shaft A will bring the cam around and raise the lifting-arm G and needle-arm L, thereby advancing the needle inward toward the scam in the higher curvilinear path from a to c, whereupon the stud I drops over the end of the cam and the needle descends to thepoint b, which completes the half reciprocation, as shown by arrows S and 4c in Fig. 6. During the remaining portion of the rotation the needle retreats from Z) to a in the path denoted by arrow 5.

To further explain the action of the needle, it is stated that during the first revolution of the power-shaft the point of the needle travels from a to b in the direction denoted by the arrow 1, thence back to a in exactly the same path as represented by arrow 2. A second or continued rotation of said shaft gradually brings the cam G into action to raise the lifting-arm and needle-arm, thereby causing the latter to advance in the different curvilinear path represented by arrow 3 in Fig; 6, and upon reaching the end of cam O and during the remaining half-rotation of the shaft the arm and needle suddenly drop from the point 0 to the point I) in the lower plane, as represented by arrow 4:, and then retreats to the starting-point a.

Having thus described my invention, what I claimas new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine for sewing looped fabrics, the combination of a drive-shaft, a second shaft parallel thereto gearing between the same, a lifting-arm, a cam on said second shaft terminating in a sudden drop, an eccentric secured to rotate with said drive-shaft, a needle-arm operated by said eccentric, and a loose and sliding connection between the lifting-arm and needle-arm, all arranged and adapted to operate in the manner and for the purpose substantially as described.

2. In a machine for sewing looped fabrics, the combination, with the frame thereof, of a lifting-arm pivoted thereto, a needle-arm provided with a link having a loose and sliding connection with the'lifting-arm, a drive-shaft, a second shaft parallel thereto gearing between the same, a cam on the second shaft, which cam terminates in a sudden drop, an eccentric secured to rotate with said drive-shaft, a groove in the face of the eccentric, and a sliding shoe located within the groove and pivoted to the needle-arm, all arranged and adapted to operate in the manner and for the purpose substantially as described.

I n testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOSEPH SOPER. \Vitnesses:

JOHN KIRK, DARWIN O. GRIFFIN. 

